The Mitchell system builds labor similar to CCC, from the “outside in”. Again, it is critical that you understand which related operations are included in a database labor value, and which are not. Mitchell makes extensive use of labor notes, and most often, these labor notes reflect related labor that is not included and must therefore be identified separately. Again, you must reference both the labor notes and the P-pages to understand what is included and not included in a given labor value.

As with CCC, the labor notes do not appear on the printed estimate. You must pay close attention to these notes during the preparation of the estimate. If the estimate has been generated by another person, you may need to have the generator of the estimate pull up those labor notes and share them with you. Labor notes that you are unaware of or that you choose to ignore, may result in inaccurate estimates that fail to capture all labor operations associated with the repair. As with all three estimating systems, the Mitchell estimating system relies heavily on P-pages for the preparation of complete and accurate estimates.

The Mitchell P-pages can be accessed within the estimating program via the button by the graphic. They can also be accessed online within the Mitchell website, or you can click here for the direct link to the Mitchell Collision Estimating Guide or Replacement Assemblies Estimating and Reference Guide.

Important estimate symbols to remember:

Labor Note – A pound sign (#) on an estimate line indicates that a labor footnote applies to that operation. That labor note may indicate that other operations are included in that labor value, or may indicate that required related operations are not included and must be itemized separately. These labor notes are not automatically printed on the estimate.

Labor Override – An asterisk (*) on an estimate line indicates that the default database labor associated with that operation has been altered by the estimator, and either increased or decreased. In this case, it is critical that you understand what the value was originally, and why that value was altered. A common example of this is altered refinish time, which may or may not be valid.